Highlight Published
01 Jan 2014 - The start of the year is often
a time for new projects and change. At the
European Environment Agency, 2014 marks
the start of a new 5-year work programme
and a new set of environmental policy priorities.
Late last year the European
Union approved its 7th Environmental Action
Programme (EAP), which sets out the priorities
of environmental policymaking in the EU
for 2014-2020. Entitled 'Living well, within
the limits of our planet', it puts a particular
focus on ensuring a healthy environment
and resource efficient economy for human
well-being.
Staying within the limits
of the planet’s natural resources will require
a new approach to the way we use resources
in the EU. In 2014, the priority environment
focus will be on resource use, including
using resources more efficiently – for example,
by improving recycling rates and waste treatment.
This theme replaces the 2013 theme, the
‘Year of Air’.
As part of the theme,
several concepts will frame EEA work throughout
2014. One is the ‘circular economy,’ in
which waste is seen as an important resource
to be fed back into the human economy. Another
is the ‘green economy’, interpreted as an
economic system which simultaneously uses
resources more efficiently, enhances human
well-being and maintains natural systems.
Work will focus on what these concepts mean
for Europe in practice, including the longer-term
transitions needed to realise them.
This year is also the
start of a new chapter for the EEA, marking
the start of a new Multi Annual Work Programme,
running from 2014 to 2018. The EEA will
work to improve knowledge in areas related
to EU environmental and climate policies
already in place, to monitor progress towards
the objectives and targets in Europe’s 2020
agenda, as well as to support Europe’s ambition
to make the transition towards a low carbon,
resource efficient and ecosystem resilient
society by 2050. It will do so working together
with its networks and many other partners.
A major undertaking in 2014 will be preparation
of the State and Outlook of the European
Environment Report 2015, to be published
in early 2015.
